Castle Couch is a criticism and opinion focused videogame website formed in 2013. Our goal is to poke, prod, caress, and otherwise stir conversation about videogames through essays, critiques, and other multimedia adventures. Games have merit, we are deeply interested in the ones that intrigue, inspire, or entertain.

Sit down, open up a news paper (just to get your hands all inky for the effect), and let Mr. Olivier Bouchard take you through an adventure into the news!

Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond (former managing director at Ubisoft Toronto) is no longer working for the company. Raymond joined Ubisoft in 2004 as a producer for the first Assassin’s Creed — remember a time when that franchise was new and exciting? It is unclear why Raymond left the company, or what she will do next, but we doubt she will have a hard time finding a new job. Let me just say one thing: Montreal is a pretty cool city for game development but is obviously less cool when cool people like Jade Raymond are not here so it would be cool if she would come back because I think she seems pretty cool. That’s it.

Unity

Former CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello is now the current CEO of Unity — the cross-platforms engine which was used to make Gone Home (notably Castle Couch’s game of the year 2013) and Blizzard Entertainment’s underground hard-drug known as the Hearthstone. No word if Riccitiello is going to be making any major changes to the engine in the near future, but here is hoping that Unity will never come with built-in microtransactions and timers.

Paranautical Activity

Half of the development team on the roguelike-FPS-with-a-bad-pun-for-a-name made a big mistake last week. After the game was incorrectly labeled as “Early Access” on Steam, Mike Maulbeck went on twitter to vent his frustration, whited ended with him threatening to kill Gabe Newell. As expected, the game was subsequently pulled from Steam. Maulbeck resigned the day after, and his studio Code Avarice is now owned by the man who-was-the-other-half-but-is-now-all-the-team named Travis Pfenning. In a statement, Pfenning apologized for the events, while hoping that Valve would go back on their decision to pull the game from their service.

Castle Couch

Essays and Conversations about Games

Castle Couch is a Montreal-based criticism and opinion focused videogame website formed in 2013. Our goal is to poke, prod, caress, and otherwise stir conversation about videogames. Games have merit, we are deeply interested in the ones that intrigue, inspire, or entertain.